The first 5 days have been good so far!

BUT, I'm eating way too much dark chocolate. Like every day. 1/3 of a bar. I don't know how I'm going to get that under control. I bought some unsweetened bakers chocolate and I've been nibbling on that because it's difficult to eat quickly. I got too much in my mouth the other day and I had to spit it out because I didn't know how I was going the swallow the goo!(That might've sounded dirtier than I'd intended.)

I think I'll keep some unsweetened bakers chocolate around and try avoid having too much other dark chocolate in my pantry.

I've also been eating too many calories. Just too many. I realize my meals are disproportionate to a fault. I often eat 500 or less calories at breakfast and 900+ at lunch and dinner. I am going to shoot for 3 meals, each around 700. That's roughly enough to lose weight and it's plenty of calories to satisfy me. I've just basically been running wild with the oils, but they are calorific!

I am not going to jump into IF just yet. I love breakfast. It makes me happy and if it's a good, satisfying breakfast it keep me going until lunch. I had breakfast about 11 am and it's been 4 hours and all I've had is an orange. I feel awesome.

So, while I'd love to get away from the calorie counting, I think it's necessary for me. I'm not to be trusted with fats!

I also should mention this whole week starting primal it's been that time of the month, meaning my appetite should've been increased a lot. The fact that I've stayed away from sugar and bread says a lot about the primal life. I am hoping that after TOM ends and my appetite stabilizes I'll be able to accurately judge things that fill me up and keep me satisfied well into the day, compared to things that might not keep me that full, along with making sure I'm not eating 3000+ calories.

1. stop buying chocolate! If you really want some, make a special trip to get it. You might find that not worth the effort

2. I think we all overeat one food or another in the beginning. For me it was nuts. But then I stopped needing to snack, so I stopped needing that quick crunchy fix.

3. Stop thinking in calories. I know its a hard habit to break, but you might just find that paying attention to hunger cues and portion control *magically* does the trick. Calories DO count, but you'll see that you can eat far more than you thought.

4. Really really really pay attention to hunger cues. If you're hungry for breakfast, great! Make it count. Avoid snacks between meals. Just let yourself experience primal hunger. It is much different than low-blood-sugar-hunger. It is possible to feel hungry without the shakes, headaches and brain fog. If you're not hungry for 4 hours or more, resist the urge to top up with a snack 'just in case'.

5. Food you eat when you're hungry is food your body asked for. Feed it well. Its the food you eat for other reasons that contributes to weight gain. Your body's needs will fluctuate from day to day.

Secondly, can you give an example of a day's worth of meals? Most newbies have trouble eating enough, not too much! I'm very curious what your daily meals are.

Thirdly, to stop eating so much dark chocolate: stop buying it!

Aha, I have little trouble eating too much.

I usually start out my day with one of two meals. It's either a few strips of bacon, between 2 and 4 depending on the day, cooked in a tblsp of butter. When I take the bacon out I throw in eggs, varying between 3 fried or 4 scrambled. The other breakfast is 8 oz kefir, 200gs mixed frozen berries, 1 tblsp coconut oil all blended together and topped with shredded coconut and chopped macadamia nuts.

At lunch I have been eating roast or chicken or salad. The roast was a 4 lb london broil that I cooked in water and olive oil. I didn't measure out the olive oil but I plan to next time. Probably 1/2 cup will do fine but last time I probably used 3/4. The chicken, this week, was chicken legs, baked in olive oil(probably 3 tblsp went into the pan and I rolled them in it, and rubbed then in no salt seasoning). I ate two of them with the skin, and a half container of greek yogurt. Today I was supposed to have chicken in my salad but I forgot to put it away last night after cooking it, so I am having a salad which is just spinach. I mashed up a medium avocado with a teaspoon of olive oil and some salsa and am eating it over the spinach. Like a makeshift taco salad. I forgot to buy lettuce to go with this salad.

This week my meals with be mostly chicken. I'm making soup this weekend, with chicken broth, chicken breasts, celery, a sweet potato, cabbage and a bunch of carrots, with some oil added for fat and calories. This will be eaten as lunch or dinner. Then I have a whole chicken I'm going to bake. I've never baked a whole chicken so we'll see what happens with that.

Keep in mind I haven't been measuring much at all, and I've been experimenting with things. For instance, that smoothie thing I eat in the morning is tasty but not so satisfying, which is why I tossed in the tblsp of coconut oil.

I didn't measure the olive oil in the pot roast, which probably would've been beneficial and allowed me to deal out servings accordingly. I also will sometimes eat eggs for dinner. I also didn't weigh out the roast each day, I'd just fill a bowl with whatever felt right at the time. In the roast I added carrots and celery too.

So I feel like I'm certainly getting a ton of fats. Much more meat than I'm used to. A sufficient amount of veggies.

I will often eat a fruit in the middle of the day at work.

I also am a recovering binge eater, so at night I kind of roam the kitchen, but in the interest of not eating all my expensive food I haven't binged and I have committed to remaining grain free and sugar free, so that leaves a lot of foods unavailable.

You should also remember I'm adjusting to the use of so many fats. Fat is good and satisfying, but high calorie. I'm getting used to what amount is enough to be satisfying but not be too many calories.

It's also that time of the month. My appetite has been on the fritz. I usually become very not hungry for a day or two, and then ravenous for a day or two, and then it levels out. I'm also coming off of birthcontrol. I stopped using it about 5 days ago.

I do believe my body and brain are adjusting, and I'm also in a weird limbo concerning my appetite. I can't know how I'll be most of the time until my period stops and everything levels out.

And the simple fact of the matter is that I'm obese and have been struggling with binge eating for seven years. I am not the kind of person who can not weigh her food to keep herself in check. I can easily overdue it with oil and high calories foods.